Scholastic hosted a lovely cocktail party yesterday for Mockingjay, the third and final book in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy. Suzanne was there, reading the final pages from Catching Fire, asking (to a roomful of avid fans) us to cover our ears if we had not read the book. We all laughed at this little jest.

She then took out a few printed pages — exclaiming how they looked so much like the pages from galleys. And sure enough, it was the first chapter of Mockingjay. Suzanne read it. We were all excited and appreciated the emotional beginning of the new book. But, alas, no advance readers copies and no reviewers copies for this much anticipated title. We ALL have to wait until August 24th to read the book.

I think I am going to suggest to my Science Fiction/Fantasy book club to host an August 24th reading party in the Library. It will be a worthy activity not too long before the start of the year.